Sewing machine work-guide



Nov. 9, 1943.

J. SAILER SEWING MACHINE WORK-GUIDE Filed May 10,1941 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 M9015 tl nsailer- Nov. 9, 1943. R. J. SAILER SEWING MACHINE WORK-GUIDE Filed ma 10, 1941 s Sheets-Sheet 2 Warm W 2 Aug Patented Nov. 9, 1943 I SEWING MACHINE wonncumr. Rudolph J. Sailer, Townley, N. J.,-assignor to The Singer Manufacturing Company,

Elizabeth,

'N. J a corporation of New Jersey Application May 10, 1941', Serial No. 392,838

Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in work-guides for use in connection with sewing machines and has for its primary object to facilitate the production of rows of stitches which are so disposed in a finished product that the spacing between at least two of said rows may be greater than that spacing between the needles used to produce the same.

A more specific object of the present invention is to effect the production of a plurality of parallel, reenforced, bat-filled beads in a body fabric with a standard multi-needle sewing machine arranged to sew at least two of such beads with work-plate removed and disclosing fragments of the sewing machine arm and head.

Fig. 4 is a vertical section taken substantially along line 4-4 of Fig. 1 showing a fragment of a body fabric, four cords of batting, and two backing strips in proper relation as being directed 'to the sewing machine stitch-forming mechanism.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one of the strip and bat guides.

Fig. 6 is a front elevation, partly' in section of two the sewing machine presser-foot unit.

a spacing between them, when removed from the machine, greater than the spacing between the two outer needles of said machine.

My invention has its greatest use in the production of upholstery work in which field it has been found that it is often not practical to furnish a sewing machine having a needle spacing or gauge that is commensurate with the stitching requirements. To provide such a sewing machine would involve a great expenditure of money and heretofore the common recourse has been to effect the desired widely spaced stitchings' in a plurality of successive sewing operations. However, to perform successive sewing operations using one or more machines-involves extra work handling and results in lost time and added costs.

- My invention, therefore, may be used to a marked advantage whenever the above described condition arises as the device may be applied, with slight modifications, to any standard multineedle sewing machine and thus obviate the necessity for using an abnormally wide gauge machine, or a multiple head machine, for a one operation job.

With the above and other objects in view, as will hereinafter appear, the invention comprises the devices, combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter described in connection with the accompanying drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention and in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the attachment in operative position as applied to a sewing machine and showing the work-plate ofthe machine in section. v

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the attachment as applied to a sewing machine with the work-plate removed and showing a fragment ofa sewing machine head.

Fig. 3 is a front elevation showing the entrance end of the attachment with the sewing machine Fig. 7 is a rear elevation of the presser-foot unit with its back plate removed.

Fig. 8 is a vertical section taken substantially along line 8-8 of Fig. 6.

Fig. 9 tea vertical section taken substantially along line 9-9 of Fig. 6.

Fig. 10 is a perspective view of afragment of a finished work-piece and showing two of the four bat-filled beads. 1

'The drawings illustrate the improvement as applied to a sewing machine having a base-frame -5, and an overhanging arm 6 terminating in the hollow head i in which the reciprocatory needlebar 8 and the spring biased presser-bar 9 are mounted. Secured to the base 5 is a work-plate 4 and a throat-plate Ill apertured to receive the needles II which are -mounted in the needleframe l2. carried by the needle-bar 8.

Any suitable loop-taking elements and mechanism may be employed as complemental to the needles H in the formation of stitches, and the work may be advanced past the needles I I by any usual or suitable feedingmechanism, although in the present modification a I puller feeding mechanism is used in conjunction with the usual lower four-motion feed-dogs.

The puller feeding mechanism disclosed in the drawings comprises two horizontally disposed feeding rollers, l3 and 14, which aremounted upon and actuated by suitable mechanism that is not pertinent to the present invention.

Secured to the presser-bar 9, by means of a screw l5 and the presser-bar receiving lug I6, is a presser-foot unit best illustrated in Figs. 6 to 9, inclusive. This presser-foot unit comprises a frame member I! carrying said lug I6, the two outer presser-feet l8, and the central foot IS. The outer feet 18 are each provided with two bead-guiding grooves 20 which are flanked on each side by a respective needle-aperture 2|.

The feet l8 are pivotally secured by means of pins 23 to shank elements 22 which are slidingly' confined in the grooves 24 by means of a backing illustrates -the screws 25 which secure the plate 25 to the frame l1.

The presser-feet shank elements 22 are pivotally interconnected by means of the beam 21 which is pivoted on screw 28. Thus the :wo feet l8 may compensate for variations in thickness of work and may move simultaneously in opposite directions within their respective guidegrooves 24.

The center foot I9 is pivotally secured to the two-armed carrier 29 by means of the pins 39, 3| and the intermediate gimbal-piece 32. Guidegrooves 33 slidingly receive the two-armed carrier 29 which is retained in the frame l1 by the two screws 34 passing through slots 35 provided in said carrier 29. A spring 35 acts to retain the foot l9 in normal operating position and the slots 35 and screws 34 limit the up-and-down movement thereof relative to the frame |1.

Secured to the backing plate 25 of the presser 'unit by means of screws 31 is a resilient arm 38 which is adapted to exert a downward pressure upon the plait-folded section of the work to be described, so as to prepare the same for proper entry between the feed-rollers l3 and I4.

. plate 25. Fig. '7 shows the presser-foot unit with r the plate removed therefrom and Fig. 9 best the screw 52. This vertical movement of the bracket 54 raises the wall-section 49 of the fold-- er. but due to the position of the arbor within said wall-section 59, the attachment base 39 carrying the arbor 45 must first be retracted along the rods 49 before the wall-section 49 can be thus raised.

The overhanging arm is secured by a screw 53 to the arm 54 which, in turn, is hinged to the bracket-arm 55 by means of the screw 55. As the bracket-arm 55 is made fast by screws 51 to the machine head 1, the unit made up of the wallsection 49 and the two arm members 59 and 94 may be swung about the screw 58 to be thus positioned to one side of the stitching area. A locking piece 58, pivotally secured by screw 59 to the arm 55, is swung in place, as shown best in Fig. 2,

, to lock the arm and wall-section unit in its oper- Angle arms I, provided with adjustingscrews 2, are secured to the frame l1 and said screws 2 are thus adapted to contact the.braces.3 which are carried by the machine head 1. The frame I1 is therebyheld'from'twisting'about'the axis of the presser-bar 9.

49 which are threaded into the sewing machine base 5. Secured by means of screws 4| to the base 39 is a handle rod 42 which furnishes a means by which the operator may retract the base 39 from the sewing machine in order that access may be had to the loop-taking elements. The collars 43, made fast to the rods 49 by means of set-screws 44,-limit the retraction of the base 39. Fig. 1 illustrates the position of the base 39 when the attachment is in its operative position.

A fabric folding device, which in the preferred modification is adapted to form a box-plait, is mounted upon the base member 39 to extend in the direction of feed. This plaiting device comprises an arbor or spreader-plate 45 secured by means of screws 46, one of which is shown in Fig. 1, to a supporting beam 41 which is suitably mounted upon the fin 48 of the base 39. Spaced from the arbor 45 is a wall-section 49 which extends about the opposite sides of the arbor 45 to form folding wings 59 about which the fabric 5| is. adapted to be folded to form two reentrant folds 52.

As may be seen in Fig. 2, the width of the arbor I section 45 tapers towards its discharge end and overhanging arm 59. As best illustrated in Fig.

3, the bracket 54 is provided with a slot 51 which receives the confining screw 58 that is adapted to hold the bracket 54 within the groove 55. The bracket 54 may be raised and lowered within the slot 55 by means of links 59 and sli'which are actuated by a pivotal movement of arm 8| about ative position.

On each side of the above described plaiting or folding unit is mounted a. unitary guiding device for two cords of batting material and one strip of backing material. Each of these units comprises a flat strip-guide tube 19 upon which are mounted two spaced, paralle and relativel narrow bat-guiding tubes 1|. The top portions of these tubes terminate at the juncture of a fabric-supporting apron 12 and said tubes 1|, and the vertically disposed side walls 13 of the tubes extend from this point to the discharge end of the guiding unit. The fabric-supporting apron 12 is-secured to and spaced from the strip-guiding" tube 19 by means of the side wall 14 and a webmember 15. Secured to the bottom portion of each tube 19 is a tongue 15 which is slidingly received by one of the two channels 11 provided in the attachment base 39. These guiding units may be moved along the channels relative to the base 39 so that they may be adjusted relative to the stitching area. Set-screws 18 passing through slots 19, provided in the base 39, secure the tongues 15 in their adiusted positions;

Fig. 4 illustrates the folding and guiding device with the work inserted therein. The four batguiding tubes 1| are illustrated as containing the cords of batting 89 and paper backing strips 8| are shown in their respective guiding tubes 19.

Fig. l9 illustrates a fragment of the finished work with the stitches 82 confining the batting cords 89 between the fabric 5| and the backing strips 8|, thus forming bat-filled beads or welts 93 in the body fabric 5|. As may be seen from Fig. 4, the spacing between the pairs of beads 83 will be greater than that spacing between the corresponding groups of needles II, when the fabric 5| is removed from the attachment and unfolded.

From the above descriptionit will be understood that by, using a folding means of the present type, in conjunction with suitable guiding elements, a plurality of widely spaced welts or beads may be produced in a body fabric in one operation by a single-head multiple-needle sewing machine of moderate gauge.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what I claim herein is:

1. An attachment for sewing machines, comprising; work-guiding and -folding means for directing a body fabric, batting cords, and backing strips towards a stitching mechanism; said means including a fabric-folding unit and a pair of cordand strip-guiding units; said folding unit comprising an arbor-section and a pair of folding wings spaced therefrom and adapted to fold a fabric thereabout; each cordand stripguiding unit comprising a plurality of tubular strip and cord-guides and a substantially flat fabric-supporting and guiding apron; saidcordand strip-guiding units beingmounted on opposite sides of said folding unit and being adapted to cooperate therewith in the directing of said fabric toward a sewing machine stitching mechanism. I a

2. An attachment for sewing machines adapted to effect the production of stitched bat-filled beads in a body fabric and comprising, a fabricfolding unit including an arbor-section and a wall-section spaced therefrom to define a fabric passageway therewith, a vertically movable means adapted to be carried by a head portion of a sewing machine for supporting said wallsection, abase element, said arbor-section being mounted upon said base element, and a pair of bat-guiding units each including a plurality of tubular bat-guiding elements and a substantially fiat fabric-supporting plate, said bat-guiding units being mounted upon said base element and on opposite sides of said folding unit so that said fabric-supporting plates may cooperate therewithin directing the fabric towards the stitching mechanism of a sewing machine.

3. A fabric-folding attachment for sewing machines comprising, a substantially horizontally disposed unitary spreader-plate, means to support said spreader-plate so that it may be shifted endwise of itself, a tubular and unitary wallsection spaced from the top of said spreader- 1 plate along the major portion thereof, said wallsection extending about the opposite sides of saidv spreader-plate to form tapered folding wings adapted to produce reentrant folds intermediate the edges of a fabric of indefinite width, said wings having their widest portion underlying the discharge end of the spreader-plate and devices for supporting and vertically shifting said wallsection.

4. In a sewing machine having a bed and an overhanging head. the combination with stitchforming mechanism including a plurality of laterally spaced needles to form spaced rows of stitches in a, body fabric, of fabric-folding means 7 having its discharge end located between two vertically disposed planes each being parallel to the line of seam formation and containing one of two adjacently disposed needles, said folding means including a substantially horizontally disposed spreader-plate and a unitary wall-section spaced therefrom and extending about the opposite sides thereof to form horizontal folding wings, said wings being adapted to have a fabric folded thereabout so that at least two rows of said stitches in the finished product are spacedat a greater distance than that distance between the respective needles used to produce the same, an attachment base retractably fastened to'said bed and carrying said spreader-plate, and vertically movable means carried by said head for supporting said wall-section.

-5. In a sewing machine having a bed and an overhanging head, the combination with stitchforming mechanism including a plurality of laterally spaced needles to form parallel rows of stitches in a body fabric, of fabric folding means the discharge end of which is located between two vertically disposed planes, each plane being parallel to the line of seam formation and containing one of two adjacently disposed spaced needles, said folding means including a spreaderplate mounted upon a fin projecting from said bed and a continuous wall-section spaced from said spreader-plate and extending about the opposite sides thereof to form folding wings, said wings being adapted to have a fabric folded thereabout so that at least two rows of said stitches in the finished product are spaced at a greater distance than that distance between the respective needles used to produce the same, and means depending from said overhanging head for supporting said wall-section, said last mentioned means being secured to said wall-section between 1 the side edges thereof.

, RUDOLPH J. SAlLER. 

